THE WAY TO LIN THE GAME? While Jeremy Lin was impressive during the Knicks’ comeback win in Toronto, MSG announcer Mike Breen was misleading by saying the phenom had a good game despite seven turnovers. Photo: EPA

So the nurse says: “Doctor, shall I boil the instruments?”

“No,” says the doctor, “let’s have them fried, for a change.”

Old habits die hard. For example, four examples:

1) If this is truly the extended dawn of the all-in Jeremy Lin Era, then we need to rethink what we’re watching and presumably enjoying.

Tuesday on MSG, as Lin, with eight minutes left, was leading the Knicks to a comeback win in Toronto, Mike Breen leaned on an old, understandable but suddenly misleading habit.

“Lin,” he said, “has had another good game, scoring and assists, but he has also had seven turnovers.”

Ah, but in a way — a big way — seven turnovers at that point was trace evidence of good play, not bad.

Teams that plan to succeed through the kind of high-energy play such as Lin’s don’t fret over turnovers; they might even prefer seven to two or three. Seven committed over 30-plus minutes of playing aggressive, fast-paced offense can lend itself to playing winning basketball.

Mistakes can be a byproduct of intelligent, better-idea risk-taking. George Washington had more losses than wins but won the war. You had to be a pretty good quarterback to be among career leaders in incomplete passes. And if Da Vinci got it right every time, he wouldn’t have invented the paper shredder.

If the Knicks, or any team, plan to continue to succeed through the kind of play that Lin provides, Lin had better keep turning it over. Two or three per game just won’t do it.

2) In removing “Monday Night Football” co-analyst Ron Jaworski, relegating him to a desk job while giving chatterbox Jon Gruden even less time to rest, ESPN has sustained its upward and onward path, the one that ends up right where it started.

Jaworski didn’t belong in the “MNF” booth to begin with. He’d never previously distinguished himself as a valued presence — not for his wit, nor insights – and he never would. The best he could be during was just OK.

ESPN selected Jaworski because he played quarterback in the NFL. All networks hire ex-quarterbacks first, worry about their TV abilities later, after it’s too late. ESPN currently has nine former NFL quarterbacks on staff, with goodbye guys Sean Salisbury, Joe Theismann, Mark Malone before them.

Dave Jennings, for years on Giants then Jets radio broadcasts, was among the best analysts to work any sport here. Alert and concise, he even knew the rules! But he could never get a network TV gig. As a former punter, he didn’t qualify.

3) Sunday at Pebble Beach, Tiger Woods finished nine shots behind the winner, Phil Mickelson. But if you watched on CBS, you’d have thought he lost by one — and because his ball, just as it was about to fall in the hole, hit a pebble or a bird pecked it wide.

The TV pandering to Woods has surpassed the insulting stage. Sunday, while paired with Woods, Mickelson, on 18, had a three-stroke lead and a short birdie putt. Yet Woods did not putt out to allow Mickelson the last bow, a traditional and sporting courtesy.

Yes, there was still a twosome behind them, but neither had a chance to win. Every man on that telecast has played competitive golf and, in the same position as Woods, would have putted out to allow Mickelson the full and sustained appreciation from the gallery. But not Woods.

And not one person on CBS said a word about it.

Later, CBS’ Peter Kostis “interviewed” Woods, another frightened, scraping and bowing session in which he provided bad-luck excuses for Woods — including a ball that settled in a divot (not uncommon) — while asking the standard absurdity, “What do you take away from this?”

That Mickelson had just shot 64 to Woods’ 75 was never even broached, not one question to Woods about Mickelson coming from way back to win — as Woods once did at Pebble Beach, something often noted and shown throughout CBS’ coverage. Pathetic.

On CBS Sports Network, late Sunday afternoon, the Stony Brook-Vermont basketball game appeared via delayed tape. Early in the game, the crawl along the bottom gave the final score.

Nurse!

Francesa late for MSG talk

Better six weeks late than never, Mike Francesa, Wednesday, still scored in his interviews with reps from Time Warner and Cablevision on the continuing loss of MSG to Time Warner subscribers.

Significantly, Francesa noted that as long as both sides refuse to divulge financial specifics of the dispute, neither should expect better than public scorn.

While Time Warner’s rep could provide no good answers to good questions, Cablevision’s provided contradictory ones that went unchallenged. He claimed Cablevision/MSG isn’t looking for anything different from Time Warner than it has with other systems, yet he also said deals for MSG vary from system to system.

Then again, Cablevision’s hard, fast policies have always included major contradictions. And more politicians than a Fourth of July parade.

Westchester’s former State Senator Nick Spano this week pled guilty to federal tax evasion. As a lobbyist, Spano repped Cablevision. When Long Island’s Al D’Amato was a U.S. Senator, his brother’s law firm repped Cablevision. Al D’Amato is now a lobbyist for Cablevision. Funny, how that works.

* When MSG during a Knicks radio broadcast, pitches “an exclusive interview” that MSG announcer Spero Dedes will have with Jeremy Lin, do the network shot-callers think we’re impressed by such a claim or left laughing at it? And what did MSG think Mike Tyson would provide, Wednesday, during a live courtside interview, if not an obscenity? Duh.

* FOX this season is loading up on Saturday night MLB games, eight dates. All will start at a logical time, 7 p.m. Yeah, the illogical starting times don’t kick in until the World Series.

Monday was odd in that none of the area’s five pro winter teams played. All were off, er, had a bye.